Mercury Direct in July-August 2016 - How Will The Superior Conjunction in Cancer Manifest in the Future?

by Robert Wilkinson

Following up on the general meaning and function of the "Superior Conjunction" between the Sun and Mercury not long after the recent New Moon in Cancer, today we explore specifics of the Superior Conjunction of July 6, 2016, at 16 Cancer. This “fusion of life and mind” will impact the rest of the Mercury direct period up to its next retrograde Inferior conjunction coming on Sept 12, 2016.

The inferior conjunction is when Mercury (mind) conjuncts the Sun (life) while retrograde. This indicates that signals, messages, and ideas from either outer sources or subconscious sources will fuse with the life principle, setting the tone for the lessons involving how our minds are relating to our lives during the next 7 weeks.

Since Mercury is direct in motion and moving faster than the Sun, it now makes a “superior conjunction” that begins a several week period when mind will race ahead of life, heralding things to come. The degree of any superior conjunction shows how our perceptions have caught up with our lives, which can bring forth a new expression of our light.

The Sabian Symbol for the Inferior Conjunction

The Solar degree symbol for the Superior Conjunction at the 16th degree of Cancer is “A man before a square with a manuscript scroll before him.” In "the Astrology of Personality," where Rudhyar uses the original Dr. Jones' class notes on the symbols, 16 Cancer is said to be a symbol of “Underlying tendency to revert to root patterns of being: ‘squaring’ oneself with everyday reality,” and “control over life.”

We are told in the Astrological Mandala that this symbolizes "a deep concern with problems raised by the process of personality integration.” We are told this is the inevitable first step into a new long term life or allegiance, where all we have decided up to that point must be “stabilized and consolidated” into actions, feelings, and thoughts. It is a process of personality integration through the means in the symbol, that of meditating on the form of a square, whether with a manuscript explaining something, or a manuscript on which to record the experience.

Rudhyar continues by stating “it reveals a deep effort on the part of the individualized consciousness to reach a solid basis of understanding that will allow it to perceive the structural relationship of every part of the personality to every other part.” He offers it involves study and concentration to come to a sense of “a profound and stabilizing sense of form” unrelated to external patterns. He says it falls in the span of Expansion, and it’s the initiating degree in the actional level of the scene of Consolidation in the Act of Stabilization.

According to Dr. Jones, creator of the Sabian Symbols, this degree is one of “intellectual experience as an exercise in self-competency,” where we embrace a “never-ending adjustment of practical realities to their ideal potentials.” Here our realizations need examination using “logical or judicial criteria,” and there is an “exaggerated sensitiveness to things of possible concern.”

He offers us the keyword PROFUNDITY. He states when operating in a positive manner, this degree “is an absolute and personal control and organization of self for the purposes of each special situation.”

So we'll use the ”fusion of life and mind” through the next Inferior Conjunction to take a new look at new ways of integrating or reintegrating our personalities, and get back to our root to stabilize our new life directions. Take every opportunity to meditate, and see how everything in your life relates to everything else. Look at what is emerging, what sustains, what is ending or has ended, and make a report to your Highest Self in the solitude of the sanctuary of your heart and Soul.

At this conjunction, mind is no longer following life, trying to catch up to it. Now mind races forward as herald, catching glimpses of knowledge, perception, and understanding that shows us where life is headed in the near future.

This Superior Conjunction can fuse foresight and life experience to see how new forms of light, life, and perspectives can come forth these next few weeks. Because this “fusion of life and mind” takes place in the second third of Cancer, it represents a new direction, where the process of living is purified and regenerated.

Here we can examine whether our magnetism is attracting that which is not truly a part of our “root reality,” and how to focus our magnetism and desires in ways that help us gather what we need within ourselves to feel like we’re living our new allegiances. This symbol in some way indicates a “conjunction” or union between inner and outer elements of our existence. This is the self-initiated Water that moves in the direction of its own inner self-realization.

What’s Up After the Superior Conjunction?

As I pointed out in the first article about the Superior Conjunction, at this Superior Conjunction at 16 Cancer we will have “a fusion of life and mind” that will help set a platform. In blending these principles we will see a shift in our affairs, attitudes, and understanding about those things symbolized by Mercury in Cancer.

Natal points in harmony with 16 Cancer will see productivity, understanding, stabilization, and unique qualities come forth. Natal points in friction with 16 Cancer will see turning points, blocks, braking action, and release of potential. These are the primary “Life-Mind” fusion lessons through the next Inferior Conjunction on September 12 at 21 Virgo, a degree that will bring us some form of education through social-emotional “experiments” in cooperation to achieve a practical and precise functioning in teamwork with others.

Of some importance is this Superior Conjunction is almost exactly biseptile the last Superior Conjunction in March at 4 Aries. That implies the period between late March (Sup Conj) and the following Inferior Conjunction at 20 Taurus in early May somehow initiated some new ways of “doing our Being” that have now hit a turning point and demand externalization into the world in an integrated way. The current Superior Conjunction period will last until the September Inferior Conjunction, so reference what began between late March and early May to understand some things have now hit “fail safe” and must be expressed in the world.

What’s the Backdrop to What’s Happening?

I discussed this in the recent article on the New Moon. The Inferior Conjunction falling in Cancer makes the Moon the worldly ruler of the conjunction. That implies that the Moon in Leo is steering this boat, and is one of the dominant energies at this time. As the Sun in Cancer is the ruler of Leo, and the Moon in Leo rules the Sun in Cancer, it creates a mutual reception which is a very powerful self-reinforcing energy feedback loop. This rules all the other planetary functions except for Uranus and Mars, both ruled by Mars in Scorpio, and Neptune, which stands alone in its home sign of Pisces.

From here, even though Mercury will outrace the Sun for the next few weeks, it’s going to begin to slow down in speed, and will go retrograde at 6:04 am PDT, 9:04 am EDT, 2:04 pm BST on August 30 at 30 Virgo, a degree of “joy of enlisting in a task which broadens the life horizon” and a “rising to the occasion” to “escape from a narrow destiny.” That will give us yet another period where we can learn about how Mercury functions from a retrograde “review and return” perspective. New adventures will open for many, due to the multiple conjunctions to Jupiter at that time.

Mercury’s duality is “Life/Death,” so we can get a new look at how our consciousness and responses are either creative, destructive, or both, to cite the venerable Kabalistic Arhat Paul Foster Case. Mercury is where we learn if our mental processes are creating chaos and disorganized scattered conditions through ambivalence, and thus come to see how to use discernment to coordinate various functions to bring forth perfect knowing how to do whatever needs to be done.

Because we’ll be dealing with Mercury retrograde energies beginning August 9 when it enters its shadow zone, if you haven’t already gotten your copy, you may want to purchase your copy of the 2nd expanded edition of "A New Look at Mercury Retrograde." You can find out all you need about Mercury Retrograde in the signs, houses, what it means for each sign, when it happens, and Mercury Retrograde celebrities and historical events that you'll never find in any other source.

Here's the Amazon link to the page where you can order your paperback or ebook copy of A New Look at Mercury Retrograde. It is an invaluable resource for understanding past, present, and future Mercury retrogrades, so get your copy today. Just make sure you get the 2015 edition, and not the 1997 first edition, since the second is a far superior product! It's a great resource to check out possible ways the coming Mercury retrograde effect could play out in August, September, October, November, and December.

And of course, if you want to know more about this Superior Conjunction, please check out The July New Moon in Cancer part 2 since it elaborates on the current Jones pattern, aspects, element balance, and a lot more that this Superior Conjunction has in common with that Lunation.

Copyright © 2016 Robert Wilkinson

Comments

[Nic]

Thanks Robert, a very meaningful and timely conditions. There are times when we can see how synchronicity works and unfolds in what is happening within one and the whole. Glad your post has made this so clear and thus useful.

Blessings be to all.

[sue]

Thanks Robert... "to escape our narrow destiny" ...put there by the powers that be...
in ancient times when we were wise
pictures flowed freely from our 3rd eyes
we used our throats to harmonize
and bliss and wisdom filled our lives
we knew the square as a cage where the ego lies...